Archive for April, 2012

Spring almost certainly seems to her here this month, inducing some intermittent and refreshing April showers. I was sitting on my sofa last week, enjoying the pleasant sunshine streaming in through the open garden door, whilst I had a little tea break with a friend, when the biggest bumble bee I have ever seen flew through the window. My friend is terrified of bees, although she doesn’t know why, but I think there’s something wonderfully adorable about them. The bee flew around the room, landing on a few of my brightly coloured trinkets, and then went on its way leaving me with an idea for a new tote bag design for Mystic Moose.

Our conversation moved on to the sign I had see the other day on the bus into town, stating that my town was the first Bee Guardian Town. I love the phrase Bee Guardian, and I’m thinking of volunteering for the project – mostly it seems to involve caring for bees and guiding walks of bee-flourishing areas, which sounds lovely!

Having finished my new tote bag design, I have another bee-related one in the making, so keep an eye out in my etsy shop.

A few weeks ago I visited my grandmother for a lovely cup of tea and a catch up in her garden whilst the weather was sunny.

Ever since I was young my Grandmother has collected gnomes and her garden is like a shrine to the creatures. When I was a child I used to love sitting on the lawn, playing with the gnomes and setting up adventures for them, mainly involving hiding the fact they were alive from humans and trying to escape from my Grandmothers two tabby cats. My favourite was a bearded fellow I had lovingly named Gnomey Dustberry who was the hero of all my childhood games.

Whilst sitting in the garden with my grandmother, I was reminded of Gnomey Dustberry, who had long since perished in a storm after a pot plant fell on him and smashed his ceramic body to smithereens, and began doodling a few sketches whilst chatting in the sunshine.

The end result was my new tote bag design, which is now for sale in my etsy shop. I decided to use the traditional blue, red and yellow that scattered the garden I remember, rather than only use the red shirt that my favourite gnome wore.